China News Service, September 23. On September 23, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the implementation of the "15th Five-Year Plan" and accelerating the construction of an educational power. Guo Peng, director of the Development Planning Department of the Ministry of Education, introduced at the meeting that in 2025, my country's higher education gross enrollment rate will reach 61.3%, with a total enrollment of 48.73 million people. Such a large higher education system cannot have only one track and one model. It needs to implement classified policies to better utilize the functions of various universities and better adapt to the diverse needs of the economy and society.
Guo Peng pointed out that classification is the method to promote the reform of colleges and universities, reform is the driving force, and development is the goal. The classification is not divided into levels, but into tracks. The general direction is to guide the scientific positioning of colleges and universities based on the basic orientation of research-oriented, application-oriented, and skill-oriented. The basic direction of comprehensiveness and characteristics guides the scientific positioning of colleges and universities; improves differentiated policy support, promotes the characteristic development of various colleges and universities such as science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, humanities and social sciences, arts and sports, and normal education, and continues to optimize the type structure of colleges and universities and the talent training structure. While promoting the development of higher education institutions with distinctive features, the reform places special emphasis on contribution orientation to stimulate classified development momentum.
Research-oriented universities should focus on supporting the country’s major strategic needs. The new round of "double first-class" construction will further strengthen the forward-looking layout guided by national mission and driven by strategy, guide research universities to strengthen the connection with national strategic goals and strategic tasks, condense major scientific research issues and research fields, strengthen basic frontier exploration and key technological breakthroughs, and create a supporting force to serve the country's major strategies.
Application-oriented universities should focus on serving the high-quality development of the region. The Ministry of Education plans and implements the "double excellence" construction plan with the goal of high-quality school running capabilities and excellent service to regional economic and social development. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, support the construction of about 200 high-level application-oriented undergraduate colleges and universities and a number of high-quality specialty disciplines to create a highland for training applied basic research, technological innovation and application-oriented innovative talents, and serve the construction of regional innovation systems.
The key point for technical colleges and universities is to closely connect with the front line of production practice. The "New Double High" construction plan will continue to lead the development of skilled colleges and universities, build a strong municipal industry-education consortium and an industry-industry-education integration community, closely connect key areas of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries, promote in-depth collaboration and linkage between schools, local schools and enterprises, and deliver a large number of highly skilled talents to the front lines of industry.
Guo Peng said that the next step will be to strengthen policy supply, establish classified management and classified evaluation mechanisms, improve resource allocation incentive mechanisms, accelerate the construction of a self-reliant and excellent higher education system, and better support and serve Chinese-style modernization.
